I was given the opportunity to have a copy of a book to read over and see what I thought. I wasn’t really given any details about what the book was, only that it was targeted at Year 2/3. As I am going to be started a new phase of my Teaching Journey in Year 3, I thought it would be a great opportunity.
When this dropped through my letterbox I was instantly hooked:

Aside from the intriguing characters on the front of the book, what also caught my eye was the title. An interesting play on words. So I did what only you would do when something catches your eye in this day and age – I Googled it.

What I found got me even more excited. It turned out that this group were on a new journey themselves and that this book was the first in what I hope will be a fantastic series of these characters travelling the world and bringing us along for the magical ride. However, there was even more to it than that…

This is where WatAdventure stand out from the rest. There are three main characters in this story: Sirius the dour but passionate dog who just wants the best sightseeing possible and Jiblets, the impulsive but lovable monkey who enjoys the thrill of a new adventure. The third main character in this story is Lola, the girl who to whom Sirius and Jiblets belong to as toys before the magic begins. However, she is not just a storybook character…Lola is actually a real person. She won a competition in designing a flag for the Watabus (the three friends transport on this exciting outing) and as she was selected, she won the opportunity to be part of this story. This was fascinating so I looked a little bit more into it – it turned out that WatAdventure produce personalised stories for children which ignite their interest in reading for pleasure. I am looking mainly at ‘WatAdventure in Australia’ but this was a brilliant idea and I’ll already be looking out for future developments at this cutting-edge publisher.

Back to Australia…

Illustration

I decided to read this to my two children – 5 and 3 years old. One is about to go into Year 2 so this was perfect. The first reaction I got when opening the cover was ‘Wowwww…’ – such is the quality of the illustration. I share an image from the WatAdventure Gallery below – there are plenty more at this site https://www.watadventure.com/gallery:

The fact is that reading the story alone was captivating enough. In reality, we could have spent hours poring over the finer details of this book. We could have spent ten or more minutes pointing out the gadgetry wizardry in the Watabus, the thriving life in the Australian bush, the fascinating schools in the Great Barrier Reef or the bustling Bondi Beach. They say don’t judge a book by its cover – in this case you should make an exception.

Story

If the illustrations weren’t enough to grab the readers interest, then the writing of this story will. I read this to my children with delight. The flow of the narrative was exquisite. As I read, there was a rhythm to the words and the vocabulary used was outstanding. My wife actually commented on the words used and how much it stretched our children. With a storyteller, there is nothing wrong with this – in fact I say it should be encouraged. The vocabulary was thoughtfully selected enough to push the children but be accessible enough to keep the flow going. A real highlight.

Characters

I loved the characters. Sirius and Jiblets were the standouts and I presume this was because they will be the focus of the series. From the first page in which they came to life, their character style was instantly recognisable. Jiblets would be the fun-loving companion whilst Sirius would be the ever-suffering, self-appointed tour guide. It made for great reading.

And if that wasn’t enough…

As the story closed, I was fully satisfied as a parent reading this book to my children. They were silent and captivated (a good sign!) and looked forward to closely looking at the illustrations and my 5 year old wanted to read it himself. But then we turned the final page…

An explosion on non-fictional information and great puzzles for the kids to look back over the pages of the book and search. This sold it for me. The re-readability of this book as the children go back over the story’s events and see where in Australia they took place make this a brilliant addition to any child’s bookshelf – I’d say certainly up to Year 4.

For Teachers

But the brilliance of this story doesn’t stop there. With each purchase of the book (which is a price that is certainly not extortionate) there comes with it:

Guided Reading questions

3 comprehension lessons

5 writing lessons

For a year group maybe looking at Aboriginal culture this would be an incredible addition to their curriculum.

I’m not being asked to sell this resource, but I know I’ll certainly be looking into this for our curriculum!

So, a few days into a new journey for me. Guided reading at my school setting has been quite transient over the past few years I’ve been teaching there. I will list the various ways it has been implemented and consider the pros and cons of each. Over the 2 1/2 years I have tried three different styles of delivering Guided Reading and to hear anyone’s thoughts on the various styles would be much appreciated!

1 hour focus session a week

This was a style of Guided Reading I had never seen before and I doubt I will ever see again. Simply put, this style entails splitting the whole class into 4/5 groups once a week for an hour. Within that hour, all the TAs available in that Phase Group were pooled together so that each group would have a focus for a whole hour. So let’s have a look at this…unique style:

+Far more time to explore a text with a supporting adult

+More time to try and integrate more drama-based activities to enhance understanding of text

– Not every child is read with by the class teacher, only one group

– Only one GR session a week per child

– Highly reliant on all additional adults being available

– Requires a lot of different learning spaces to make most of benefits

Carousel Guided Reading

This is the regular version of Guided Reading. The Dairy Milk, the Ready Salted, the Kit Kat classic if you will. Wherever you’ve seen Guided Reading, this is probably the style you’ve seen implemented. Put simply, the class are split once again into around 5 groups and each day for 20-30 mins (depending on how long it takes your kids to actually figure out where they’re sitting and which daily activity they’re on) each group is undertaking a different activity and complete all of them in a week. Once again, benefits and negatives include:

+ An opportunity for a variety of challenges

+ Chn (in theory) become more independent

+ Teacher gets to work with everyone at some point in focused reading once a week

– Differentiation is a nightmare

– Chn from other groups will interrupt you when in discussion with focus group

– Due to different texts in each group, some do not access higher level texts

– Depending on the age and independence of your age group, setting up and settling can be tedious

Whole Class Guided Reading

This is the new craze that seems to be sweeping the Twitterverse. Quite a few Literacy leads (including my own) are raving about whole class guided reading. This is the reason why I am going to be trying it out this half term. The premise as far as I understand it is the class are introduced to the text/chapter/section all together (perhaps with a hook) to engage. Then they all read independently and the teacher moves to work with a focus group during the next section whilst the rest answer a variety of questions on the section they are working on and this lasts over 2-4 days depending on the Year Group. Once again, benefits and negatives are:

+All engage with higher level vocab from a higher level text

+Opportunity for all chn to access deeper thinking through peer discussion

+Less workload in terms of differentiation

+All chn receive some level of input from class teacher every day

+Less need for ‘set-up’ time

-Perhaps less of a chance for a variety of activities (but depends on how it’s implemented)

-Harder to integrate speaking and listening activities which the teacher can monitor and assess with it being a whole class task

By by non-exhaustive thinking, Whole Class Guided Reading should be the more effective method but many will have their opinions and other benefits and negatives to add (or maybe take away). Half our staff are trialling Carousel with One Text for All and half are trialling Whole Class with One Text for All. I had set up my carousel really effectively so I was a little reluctant but we were meant to trial as a Year Group and my Year 6 partner is the English Lead so I had little choice! However the class seem to be enjoying it so far!

I posted a recent blog focusing on a strategy which has really helped improve a child’s handwriting in my class. It has led me to think about handwriting and the role it plays in education.

From Reception, we encourage children to make marks, write their name and more – that means from 4 years old we are educating children in the art of calligraphy (or, at least, the starting point of it). Children are encouraged to them move onto short writing tasks and their writing is assessed. Short letters, instructions and more are examined and created.

However, in a day where the average physically writes very little, if at all, is handwriting as high a priority as it had been in the past? What do you think?

I recently went on my first course that wasn’t for NQT’s – Achieving Level 6 in Reading and Writing. Expecting to go with my mind blown with what would be expected of 10-11 year old children to reach Level 6 in those areas I was not disappointed. When we discussed the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est as a possible text for a Guided Reading session with Year 6 I was amazed. Not to mention, when looking through the ‘anthology’ that was provided as possible stimuli there were texts in there that I distinctly remembered looking at in my GCSE studies! I quickly realised it was little wonder why nationally the chasm between children achieving Maths Level 6 is consistently larger than those children who achieve Level 6 in Reading or Writing. As I left the course, wide-eyed, it became clear to me that we had work to do.

Level 6 – Why the sudden interest now?

When I was in Year 6 (2000-2001) I was almost put forward for the Level 6 Maths paper – I’ll point out that not being selected for that test has not hindered my life opportunities but more on that later – but I didn’t realise until recently that Level 6 was discontinued until fairly recently. I haven’t had the chance to do research into why Level 6 was brought back but I am fully aware of the arguments to suggest why it shouldn’t have been provided for in Primary Schools. These include:

1. The children going into Secondary with a Level 6 are NOT at a Level 6

Simply put, the children who are trained to jump through the hoops of Level 6 – reading, writing or Maths – do not have the breadth of knowledge of a Level 6 learner…they have just been taught the techniques and heavily-weighted in marks topics that come up in the Level 6 paper they sit. I am of the understanding this is the complaint that secondary educators had and rightly so.

2. It adds more workload/stress to the Primary staff involved

Speaking as a Year 6 teacher, I have some experience in this. Not only are primary school teachers expected to have children reach a Level 4/5, which in itself is a task that is no mean feat for ALL children, but also to then push the other end up to heights that some children don’t reach until the end of Year 9 is taking it (quite literally) to another level. Now, before the comments flow, I am ALL for pushing children to succeed to their potential and setting high expectations for learning – but Level 6 has now become a process where children who would not naturally achieve this ‘level’ (remembering that they aren’t REALLY a Level 6) are being pushed to reach that level…which brings me succinctly onto the final point…

3. It adds more stress to the child

This is what everything in education SHOULD be about – the child. I have a child in my Year 6 class who is working at a low Level 5 currently in Maths. She’ll be a solid Level 5, no doubt. However, the Level 6 culture has taken hold. At home, she is expected to have a tutor group each week and 2-3 hours of school work EVERY night. Whilst I praise children to the high heavens when they take their learning outside of the classroom, beyond homework and our class blog, this is too much. It is not healthy. These are children. The sad thing is, despite all this extra pressure at home to attain a Level 6…this child is making the amount of progress expected, not an accelerated rate. I am aware that this is not a sole example, but many other children are put under this pressure, particularly in their final year in primary school, which they should be savouring. Would this pressure be as intense if there was no Level 6, or at least less of an emphasis from the top-down about Level 6 attainers…I doubt it!

Six for Success?

Now, of course, after my little rant of Level 6 and the downfalls I see about it – I do see the benefits. It does remove a glass ceiling for (natural) high achievers in primary school, it does provide an outlet for AGT children to be challenged and, if the children truly are Level 6, it can provide a springboard to mastery in that subject later on in their secondary school life. These points cannot be ignored – but in my humble, NQT opinion, something HAS to change.

Next Steps for Six?

I wonder if there is some way to reduce the pressure (particularly on Headteachers) to boost the number of Level 6 attainers in schools. I do NOT think we should abolish Level 6 completely, yet I do think that there should be a much smaller emphasis placed upon it. Perhaps if children enter Year 6 as a solid Level 5 then maybe they should be guided toward that Level 6, rather than have children who are just behind being pushed up to make the numbers.

(Having said all this, levels are going out the window after this year so who knows what point this thought will have after 4 months time anyway…)!

Well, last time’s poll really brought in some interesting results! The focus was on setting by ability. 22.2% believed setting was a good idea, 33.3% believed setting should be instigated in Maths lessons but no others and 44.4% said that setting by ability should be avoided. That’s probably the most evenly spread result sen so far in one of these polls and highlights the need for research that has been done into this area to be examined and brought more into light – this decision can have a major impact on a child’s learning; is it therefore not important to decide what is best with evidence?

This week’s poll is linked to my last post on Parents Evening – what do you think is there most effective method of working in partnership with parents on their children’s learning? Obviously it will be suggested that more than one of these options should be used, and rightly so! However, which do you think has the biggest impact and which every teacher should implement?